our of personal debate, and sets {163} himself to produce an
ordered theological treatise. Never elsewhere does the apostle write
with so careful method, so powerful concentration, so effective
marshalling of arguments, so stirring yet measured eloquence.

The Epistle opens with a brief introduction. Paul, the apostle of
Christ, wishes to preach the gospel to those in Rome whom Christ has
called. Then he begins at once to describe the set of circumstances
which the gospel is intended to meet. The Gentiles have not been true
to such knowledge as they had of God, and by an inevitable process they
have passed on to unnatural and vicious excess (i. 18-32). And when
St. Paul turns to the Jews, he finds they are in no better case. With
fuller knowledge they have sinned scarcely less. Strict justice will
be meted out by God to all, the Jew coming first and then the Gentile.
The Gentile will not escape, for the Gentiles, whom we conceive of as
having no law, have a law in that moral sense which makes them
instinctively put in practice the precepts of the Law, and their inward
thoughts accuse or defend them (ii. 1-16). The Jew may boast of his
Law and his knowledge of revelation, but he is no better in practice
than a Gentile. And as for his circumcision, it is worthless unless he
is also spiritually circumcised in the heart (ii. 17-29).

After a parenthetical discussion of difficulties suggested by a
possible Jewish opponent (iii. 1-8), St. Paul shows that the Jews are
not in a worse case than the Gentiles. Both are under the dominion of
sin, and Scripture says so. The whole system of Law is a failure. Law
does nothing but give a clear knowledge of sin (iii. 9-20).

St. Paul then brings forward his great remedy--the answer of God to the
need which is represented by universal human sinfulness. Man has
failed to correspond to the suggestions of conscience, he has failed to
fulfil the requirements of the written Law, but now he may come into a
right relation with God by identifying himself with Jesus Christ. He
may be justified (_i.e._ accepted as righteous) by an act of God's
grace (_i.e._ by an {164} undeserved act of God's love) on account of
the redemption wrought by Christ, whom God has set forth as a
propitiation to show His own righteousness. God could no longer allow
man to mistake His patience with our sins for slack indifference. Man
must no longer seek to be justified before God on the strength of what